Runner’s World Editor’s Races Under Scrutiny

Whether she knowing cheated or not, the ever-changing stories are alarming -- from accidentally uploading another person's run file to manually creating one after running a good time.

Regardless what really happened, I appreciate Kate for showing us her moral compass. As a journalist, credibility is everything. Once you've lost it, regaining trust is hard.

Her contributions are mostly race reports and advertorials like top X product lists, likely a reflection of Runner's World's direction. So having someone with questionable integrity is low risk there, since the casual reader understands the listed items are often paid promotions or provided free for review.

People don't actually think she "accidently" cheated right? She drew a course after she cut it. She left the course because she wet herself but finished faster.

This is interesting. I would like to see more followup on this. Anyway my thoughts:

Always unreal how people do this and justify it to others (and to themselves). The whole sport of running is about individual times - PRs you train for, you earn. They are sacred. Forget Strava for a second, the end of the day, we're running these times for ourselves aren't we? I know it's blurred in this social media landscape but it's just unreal to me how someone can lie to THEMSELVES like that, much less the editor of Runnersworld UK lol.

The uploading the race backwards is pretty funny. Hard to explain yourself out of that one. I don't care so much about that one because it's not an official result. She shows up on London 2023 but no time - I guess because she registered, but did not run with a chip. So, whatever.

The Landmark 1:32 half result though is blatant cheating - I don't care if you're stepping off the course to take a pee or deliver a baby - even people tripping on LSD know if you're going to continue that race, you go back onto the course where you stepped off. Of all the things the investigation points out, this is by far the worst, and she should be banned from the race - IMO other UK races could follow suit based off that evidence as well.

As for people saying this doesn't matter, she's a hobby jogger whatever - what do you say to any female runner who ran a legitimate 1:33 in that race (or 1:35, 1:40 for that matter)? Those runners paid for a bib, ran a legitimate race and deserve a legitimate classification for their place in the race. This is as simple as it gets - do you have any respect for our sport?

Yes, I agree with you. I did not write the above commentary in an effort to claim she didn't cheat. Rather, it was to show the changing stories make her LESS believable.

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Every got the feeling a race just doesn’t really like you? As always, share your totally unfounded paranoia, self-pity and recipes for doughnuts below the line. Oh, and maybe a bit about running too

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she says "Then discovered that I don’t even have an official time, though I know it was under 3hr 10min because I noticed the clock hadn’t ticked to that when I crossed the line."

My understanding is that she must've used this time to qualify for a Championship entry to London Marathon 2017 (sub 3h 15min required)

The screenshots tell the story, but to summarise

1) Faulty timing chip; 2) watch stopped at 33km; 3) gun time = chip time which is impossible unless you start next to Bekele 4) comments after the event suggest the time given was based on her word only

Unless I see a finish line photo with a time stamp I refuse to believe this result is legit and she cheated her way in to London 2017.

That's completely f***ed up that Berlin gave her a 3:09:00 based on her word. Wonder if she mentioned her position at Runnersworld in that communication?

It would be one thing if she had a .gpx file which matched that supposed time but she stopped at 33 km lol.

My guess? This is just the tip of the iceberg. We need this Derek guy to sniff around her other results

Holy moly...if that is true, that's the bigger story here by far. That's cheating in one major to qualify for another

The problem is there’s not an “agreement” on what justice is. A lot of crazies think it is loss of employment for any and every person who has cheated in a race.

I hear what you're saying about justice but that's a big jump to say "any and every person" it's the editor at Runnersworld UK lol. I don't think anyone has called for any other race cheater to lose their job (Maybe im wrong?), this case is definitely different given the space she works in

3) gun time = chip time

That alone is absurd. An insult to anyone who looks at the results.

Runners World UK cannot consider her continued employment as a viable option.

You are most definition that no one has called for any other race cheater to lose their job. This is the sad norm not the exception.

*definitely wrong

not definition

Yes. I have emailed Derek already about this one. To me this is bigger than the previous two discrepancies as the time was used to gain Champs entry into London Marathon.

I just want these cheaters to come clean with a mea culpa and a promise to do better moving forward. Instead, they double down, toss out words like "defamation" and lawsuit, and refuse to accept any culpability whatsoever.

She pissed away the opportunity...

I think the Berlin 3.09 in 2016 is being misinterpreted. Firstly for London 2017 Champs entry there are two much faster qualifying times from 2015 a 3.00 and a 3.04. Secondly the 3.09 sits sensibly with other race results over that year before and after. And I think the people on here can pick out the clearly much slower results over that year 2017 and estimate that these may not have been raced at full effort.

At 2023 not the London marathon, there is a photo posted somewhere earlier that shows the statement ' London Marathon I love you 3.18.20ish' which is a strange choice of words to make truly clear that their supposed run over the course on that day was absoloutely not a london marathon 'result. On that photo you can see the first 6 km splits before the photo ends. First 5km are all close to 4.50 or just under, so around 3.24 pace. then the 6th km shows as 4.09. This is the downhill one where people gain about 10 secs with the drop. I think banking about 30 secs against target pace in a single km, as early as the 6th km, is quite a hard way to set the base for a better than expected finish time.

My understanding is that those 2015 times would've been outside the qualifying window for Championship start at the 2017 event. Therefore the qualifying time used would've been from the suspect Berlin 2016. I agree though, the time itself for Berlin is not suspicious - just the means in which it was achieved.

given what we now know about her I’m more inclined to think that the two faster times may have been doctored in some fashion.

also, as has been noted serval times the clock is showing gun time so that 3:09 is misleading…at best.